Chapter 100

At the Shanghai Hongqiao Airport waiting hall, Cheng Guo, who was Shi Yuzhu's top bunk roommate in college and now his right-hand man, saw the general manager of the Shanghai Giant branch, Liu Wei, who had come to pick him up. "How about it, have they replied when we can go for the inspection?" Cheng Guo asked directly after a brief greeting.

"5th, which is tomorrow morning," Liu Wei replied. As they talked, they walked towards the parking lot of Hongqiao Airport. At the same time, an old man and a young man walked out of the Shanghai New Passenger Station. The two men were named Wu Bingxin and Wu Weisi.

After getting into a taxi, Wu Weisi hesitantly asked his father, "Dad, we only have over 3 million yuan in the company now. Do we really need to use this money to bid at the Huaxia High-Tech auction instead of buying the goods from Jiaotong University? They are only holding auctions in each province, not the entire Yangtze River Delta region..."

"Yes, this time, the products from Huaxia High-Tech will definitely sell better than Angli No.1! Just look at the grandeur of Huaxia High-Tech's press conference. What was the scale of Jiaotong University's Angli No.1 press conference?" Wu Bingxin said seriously, "Sigh... We are in sales, we can't just look at the technological level of the manufacturers. That's all superficial! Who says the latest technology is always the best seller? The key is to know how to market! Now I understand, the people at Jiaotong University are still teachers, they are all scholars. They can't bring themselves to do marketing. Unlike Jia Gang and his team, look at how well they market Huaxia High-Tech. To put it simply, if you buy 10 newspapers on the street, see how many mention Angli No.1 and how many mention Huaxia High-Tech. That will tell you where to spend your money..."

After the press conference, they received over 30 requests for on-site inspections from the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui regions, with more than 60 people! Jia Gang almost refused all the inspection requests, for a simple reason: Huaxia High-Tech was just a shell company! The only employee officially registered was Jia Gang himself! There was no factory or production line, not even a receptionist to serve tea and water to guests. How could they host inspections in such a situation?

However, Jia Hongjian strongly urged Jia Gang to accept these inspection requests. According to him, Huaxia High-Tech could lease or contract the bottling production line from Yanzhong Industrial! This reminded Jia Gang that Yanzhong Industrial, where he used to work, had imported a hamburger production line and a bottling production line during its initial public offering due to excessive fundraising. The hamburger production line was sold at a discount after a year of operating at a loss, while the bottling production line, which produced Yanzhong brand salt soda, managed to survive through connections.

Before Jia Gang resigned, according to the new major shareholder, Shenzhen Baoan, Yanzhong Industrial was to focus on hyping up technological concepts, promoting new concepts in copiers and printers to boost the stock price. The struggling bottling production line could be sold at any time...

Reminded by his son, Jia Gang felt it was worth a try. Huaxia High-Tech didn't have enough funds to buy the production line outright, but leasing the struggling production line, along with the factory and workers, would be a good deal for Yanzhong Industrial, and Jia Gang still had many connections there...

After half a day of negotiations, Huaxia High-Tech leased the factory, production line, and workers for 100,000 yuan per month. Although the current bottling line was for plastic bottles, it could be adjusted to bottle palm-sized glass bottles of skincare products with just a few parameter changes. With this lease agreement, Jia Gang agreed to the inspections by potential distributors.

On the morning of the 5th, Jia Hongjian's family of three, along with two rented buses from a bus company, took all the people who wanted to inspect the factory to... no, it was now their factory. Su Ping played the role of Jia Gang's assistant, and the two of them were in the first bus, while Jia Hongjian, as the second assistant, led the other group in the second bus.

Cheng Guo and Wu Bingxin were both in the second bus. They received some Huaxia High-Tech introduction materials from Jia Hongjian's hands. After reading about the production line and capacity, the bus soon arrived at the factory gate.

The factory was located near Zhenbei Road. When Jia Hongjian got out of the car, he felt a sense of déjà vu, as he had lived in this area in his previous life. By 2010, this place would become part of the Middle Ring Road, with skyrocketing housing prices, and newer houses would cost over 20,000 yuan per square meter... Now, it was just an old residential area with a few small factories.

"Please follow me, this way..." Jia Hongjian didn't have time to reminisce. He entered a tour guide mode, leading the group of distributors around the factory to see the environment. Then, Jia Hongjian and his parents led the group to tour the internal production line.

Upon entering the workshop, Jia Hongjian saw many male workers adjusting the production line, while a few female workers stood around idly, chatting. When they saw Jia Hongjian's family leading the group in, they stopped chatting but remained idle.

Seeing this, Jia Hongjian really wanted to scold them! He had been a low-level employee before and had slacked off, but he would never pretend to be busy when the boss brought clients for a tour! He really wanted to confront the female workers— "Can you at least pretend to be busy when you're slacking off? Do you want to get fired?"

However, Jia Hongjian was not the boss inspecting the factory but a tour guide leading clients. He was a bit embarrassed and tried to explain, but he was surprised to find that no distributor seemed puzzled by the idle workers; not even a frown! Some even seemed accustomed to it, looking at the production line with satisfaction...

"My god..." Jia Hongjian couldn't believe what he was seeing. He looked at his parents, who also didn't seem embarrassed... "Damn, is there something wrong with me? Is there something wrong with my rebirth?"

With this doubt, Jia Hongjian pretended not to see the idle workers and led the distributors to the break room. In the first break room, he saw three female workers chatting and spitting sunflower seeds on the floor. They didn't even look embarrassed when they saw Jia Hongjian's family leading the group in; they just continued chatting...

"Damn... This must be the wrong way to look at it..." Jia Hongjian noticed that everyone else seemed to think it was normal. After the tour, when all the guests left, Jia Hongjian, looking unhappy, asked his parents, "Mom, Dad, didn't you see those three female workers chatting and spitting sunflower seeds? Why didn't you react?"

"Which three?" Jia Gang and Su Ping were puzzled, "Oh, you mean the three from the quality inspection team? What about them?"

"What about them?" Jia Hongjian was almost driven mad! "As employees, they should at least pretend to be working when the new boss brings clients for a tour, but they were still chatting and spitting sunflower seeds when we came in!"

"Aren't all workers like that?" Su Ping didn't understand why her son was surprised, "This is a community-run factory, it's better. Have you seen the state-owned factories? The workers there steal everything! They not only slack off but also steal parts and equipment to sell, or take expensive imported flanges home to make barbells..."

"Damn!" Jia Hongjian shouted, holding his head. He finally understood why so many state-owned enterprises in this era were losing money and relying on government subsidies and bank loans—these workers were like lords, and no matter how profitable the factory, it couldn't survive with such workers! Not only did they slack off, but they also stole important equipment to sell?

In the puzzled looks of Jia Gang and Su Ping, Jia Hongjian took a deep breath. He felt that after the auction, when they started production, he would personally train these workers! They didn't have to be like Foxconn, but at least they should work properly!

Otherwise, Jia Hongjian didn't know why he was paying these people! Was his family so rich that they were burning money for charity? This was the first time he felt a cultural gap since his rebirth...

However, the first thing to face now was the exclusive distribution rights auction in Shanghai, which was about to begin. Before the auction, Jia Hongjian's family had to take the group to visit the Huaxia High-Tech office...

On the bus to the Huaxia High-Tech office, the distributors who had visited the factory were discussing among themselves, some nodding and some shaking their heads.

"Dad, I think the Huaxia High-Tech factory looks even worse than Jiaotong University's Angli No.1 factory. Are we really going to bet everything on this?" Wu Weisi asked his father Wu Bingxin quietly. Wu Bingxin fell into deep thought. To this man who would create a classic case in Chinese business, the Huaxia High-Tech product was worth investing in. The secret formula was bought from Ma Junren, whose Ma Family Army was the most famous sports team in China! They were like the three-time champions of the Chinese women's volleyball team or Xu Haifeng at the 1984 Olympics, figures who had ushered in a new era and boosted national pride.

Huaxia High-Tech wasn't just using the Ma Family Army for endorsement; the product was genuinely bought from them! Look at the grand press conference! And they had an exclusive agreement with the Ma Family Army, prohibiting its champions and coach from endorsing other health supplements, beverages, or medicines. This eliminated the risk of similar products flooding the market!

So, just looking at this "prelude," Wu Bingxin felt Huaxia High-Tech had a much brighter future! Professional marketers were indeed more professional than professors! And the factory visit, though small, was understandable...

"You..." Wu Bingxin began to lecture his son, "You're still too superficial. Yes, Jiaotong University's factory looks clean and well-managed, but what good is that if they can't market their products? This isn't the old days; it's not a time when good products will sell themselves. Jiaotong University's Angli No.1 is good, but without our promotion, it might not even spread beyond Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta!"

Wu Bingxin paused, then earnestly taught his son, "When I retire, the company will be yours. Remember, you must never let technical people lead you. They are rigid, always thinking about high-tech and complex products. They don't consider the market or whether the products will sell. If a product doesn't sell, how good is it? Are we the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, contributing to socialist progress for free? We are businessmen, and our goal is to make money! The key to making money is to sell anything at a high price if there's a market for it!"

Listening to his father's advice, Wu Weisi nodded, thinking, "So, Huaxia High-Tech is like gold?"

"Exactly! The entire marketing strategy of Huaxia High-Tech, from the press conference to the exclusive agreement, doesn't look like something from Jiaotong University's professors, who only care about research. They are clearly very professional and truly want to achieve something great! They are like gold, and we should definitely work with them!" Wu Bingxin said.

"But the provincial sales rights... We only have 3 million yuan in the company..." Wu Weisi hesitated. "We'll see. If the price in Shanghai doesn't exceed 500,000 yuan, we'll take it," Wu Bingxin said.

At the same time, a man and a woman in the back of the bus were also discussing. "Mr. Cheng, what is the price range for the Shanghai distribution rights auction decided by headquarters?" Liu Wei asked quietly. "Basically, under 1 million yuan," Cheng Guo replied in a low voice, "Headquarters estimates that if it exceeds 1 million yuan, we might as well invest in our own R&D. How can the R&D cost of health supplements exceed 1 million yuan? Frankly, mixing some amino acids and traditional Chinese medicine, with no health benefits or side effects, is enough. The rest is all about marketing, and with Mr. Shi, we don't have to worry about marketing."

Indeed, Shi Yuzhu was now the second most popular young idol in China, after Bill Gates! He was the top Chinese business idol, having built his empire from scratch!

"We are doing agency sales now to gain experience. If the cost of gaining experience is too high, why not just launch our own brand?" Cheng Guo said naturally.

The bus stopped at the entrance of a residential area. When they got out, they found that a two-story building at the entrance was the Huaxia High-Tech office. The group looked at the old building with some skepticism, not realizing that they would be stunned when they saw the inscriptions by national leaders in the general manager's office...

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Will Jia Hongjian's family achieve the 20 million to 30 million yuan auction total as he hopes? Can the sales reach 300 million yuan in the remaining two months? How will he re-educate these lazy workers? Can the 4-year-old girl become the top in the country? Can he get along with the girls? Find out in the VIP chapters!

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This scene is taken from a foreign journalist's memoir. In the late 1980s, the journalist visited a state-owned factory in China and found that during working hours, some workers were eating sunflower seeds and chatting, completely idle. Even when they saw foreign journalists, they didn't hide their behavior, didn't think it was wrong, and even curiously asked the journalists questions...

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